📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
The Mid-Autumn festival is named "Tet Trung Thu" in Vietnamese.
Tet Trung Thu is formerly autumn festival, and then becomes tet trong trang (moon looking festival) of children. On this day, the moon is the brightest and roundest in the year with cool weather. The festival involves the custom of trong trang, procession of lights (parading with lanterns shaped as moon and stars), lion dance and eating pastries and fruits.
The Vietnamese version of the holiday recounts the legend of Cuoi, whose wife accidentally urinated on a sacred banyan tree, taking him with it to the Moon. Every year, on the mid-autumn festival, children light lanterns and participate in a procession to show Cuoi the way to Earth.
In Vietnam, Mooncakes are typically square rather than round, though the round ones do exist. Besides the indigenous tale of the banyan tree, other legends are widely told including the story of the Moon Lady, and the story of the carp who wanted to become a dragon.
One important event before and during Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival is the lion dance. The dances are performed by both non-professional children’s groups and trained professional groups. Lion dance groups perform on the streets and go to houses asking to perform there as well. If accepted by the host, "the lion" will come in and start dancing as a wish of luck and fortune and the host gives back lucky money to show thankfulness.
💼 What the programme involves
With the Mid-autumn festival, this work camp hopes to foster relationships between people and to give the local community hope of a beautiful future. These activities are also based on the goals of SJ Vietnam that promote the values of solidarity, peace, and tolerance through young citizenship projects. These projects help to improve society during and after the duration of the work camp. During these nine days, the local volunteers and 15 international volunteers will be divided into two groups: a Theatre Group and a Decoration Group to do the following activities.
Performance:
The first team works with the international and local volunteers in preparation for the plays. We will discuss which plays will be performed, then we prepare costumes for the plays. It will help Vietnamese people to know more about Westerners if the plays refer to stories of the Mid-autumn festival. We hope to give the children and people a memorable celebration with this play.
Activities to interact: We have activities to interact with children after decorating and before performing. We hope that through these activities the volunteers will get to know more about disadvantaged children.
Games: Volunteers can think about games to play with the children. Here are some examples: bag race, “the ropes” game, cat & mouse, ping pong, etc.
Drawing: The volunteers will help the children draw their hopes for the future.
🏠 Accommodation on site
Accommodation:
Volunteers will stay at the dormitory arranged by SJ Vietnam
Food:
Every breakfast is prepared by our cooking team. All of the participants will go outside for lunch and dinner. Vietnamese food consists of many varieties and flavors, but if you have any special dietary needs please inform us in advance.
📍 About the location
Leisure and exchange activities: As you might know the aim of this work camp is not only to help the disadvantaged but it is also a chance to meet other volunteers from other countries, and to get to know local people. During your free time (evening and weekend) you and the other volunteers will have the opportunity to enjoy different activities and to share more about your life, family and country with pictures and games. Some of these activities include an international cultural night, a visit to Ho Chi Minh and small parties!!!
ℹ️ Additional information
Fee needs to be transferred at least 2 weeks prior to the camp